Past Librarians

Past Librarians

Cassar Pullicino was born at Birkirkara but spent most of his childhood at Tarxien. He matriculated from the RUM in 1938 and started studying Maltese as part of an academic course of literature at the RUM in 1940 but had to abandon his course for family reasons. He took up employment with the government but still remained very active as a member of the Għaqda tal-Malti (Università), as assistant director of Lehen il-Malti (1944- 52).

Cassar Pullicino was council member of the Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti (later the Akkademja tal-Malti), (1942-45), and secretary of the Xirka għat-Tixrid ta’ l-Ilsien Malti (1942-46). He was also member of the Paola Literary and Debating Society (1943-45); editor, Melita Historica (1952-61); editor, Maltese Folklore Review(1962-73); and honorary president, Għaqda tal-Folkor since its foundation in 1964.

In 1970 Cassar Pullicino received the silver medal for merit from the Confederation of Civic Councils. Five years later he was awarded the Malta Government Prize for the best book published in 1974, and in 1978 he received the Literary Prize for his research on Guzè Muscat Azzopardi. In 1979 he was awarded the Malta Literary Award, and the Premio Città di Valletta in 1989. In 1993 he was presented with the Midalja għall-Qadi tar-Repubblika (MQR) while the UM conferred upon him an honorary M. Phil. degree.

Cassar Pullicino was awarded a British Council scholarship in librarianship to Leeds and London (1950-51), and he was the first Maltese to be elected associate of the Library Association, London (ALA) in 1952. Between 1953 and 1958 he was the UM’s librarian on loan from the government. From 1959 to 1965 he was posted with the department of information, often serving as director. He was instrumental in the publication of significant works, like Robert Mifsud Bonnici’s Dizzjunarju Bijo-Bibijografiku Nazzjonali (1960-65) and Erin Serracino lnglott’s translation of the first part of Dante’s La Divina Commedia, namely L-Infern (1964). He also served as assistant director of information (1959-65), assistant secretary, ministry of trade and industry (1965-68), senior assistant secretary, ministry of health (1969-70), director of industry (1971-79), and librarian, faculty of theology (later Foundation for Theological Studies) (since 1980).

Cassar Pullicino’s studies on Maltese, history, and folklore are interrelated and his research in these spheres is the hallmark of his literary career. From 1965 to 1978 he lectured to university students reading for a BA in Maltese literature and folklore and social history.

Cassar Pullicino’s literary output includes a collection of essays and short stories, Kelma Wahda Biss (1965), book reviews, papers on historical and linguistic matters as in ‘Unpublished Maltese Dictionaries’ (1947) and ‘Linguistic Analysis of Fr Magri’s Folktales’ (1961), and various studies that encouraged further research in the development of Maltese writing such as ‘Id-Djalogi ta’ De Soldanis’ (1947), Kitba u Kittieba tal-Malti (3 volumes, 1962-64), and Aquilina u l-Malti (1974).

Cassar Pullicino’s main contribution to the academic world is in the sphere of folklore. He collected from living persons texts of baby language, children’s rhymes, lullabies, and material that reflected the popular mentality (such as nicknames, hawkers’ cries, riddles, words of exorcism, and traditional praying forms). All this material was compared with similar material from the different areas of the Mediterranean. All this was published in Studies in Maltese Folklore (1976) and Studi di Tradizioni Popolari Maltesi (1989).

Cassar Pullicino’s scientific studies on folklore were complemented by his contacts with foreign experts. He attended various international congresses in which he presented several papers. He was chosen member of London’s Folklore Society in 1946 and of the Accademia di Studi Superiori Phoenix (Ban) and was a founder member of this International society for Folk Narrative Research (1962). He published several papers in specialized periodicals like Folklore (London), Lares: Organo della Societa di Etnografia Italiana (Rome), Folklore (Naples), Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (London), Orbis: Bulletin International etc Documentation Linguistique (Louvain), International Folklore Review (London), Bulletin de Litterature Orale Arabo-Berbere (Paris), and Acta Ethnographica (Budapest). He also published several articles and studies of a historical and biographical nature.

Born in Valletta, Xuereb was educated at the Lyceum and the RUM from where he graduated BA (Hons.) in 1955 and LL.D. in 1958. He pursued further studies at University College, London from where he obtained a postgraduate diploma in librarianship in 1967.

Xuereb joined the academic staff of the RUM in 1965 and was appointed the university librarian in 1967.

Xuereb was founder-member and for several times served as chairman of the (Għaqda Bibljotekarji (formerly Malta Library Association). He represented the Malta Library Association at the foundation of the Commonwealth Library Association (COMLA) in 1972, he was president COMLA (1979-83), member of the Malta Book Fair Committee (1979) and chairman (1989-96), chairman of the Printed Matter Appeals Board (since 1988), drama critic for The Sunday Times (since 1963), member of the Manoel Theatre Management Committee (since 1992), and president of the Friends of the Manoel Theatre (since 1993).

Apart from the publication of several books, Xuereb contributed ‘Malta’ articles to the Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science (1976) and to the World Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science (1993). He also edited Information for Development (1984); Bibliography ‘84 (1985); The Impact of automation on the functions, administration and staffing of libraries (1988); Libraries and research in Malta (1989)

He has also been editor of the journal The Manoel since 1996, and edited Treasures of Malta since 2005.

Xuereb is married to Cecilia née Gouder.

Publications:
1965: ‘Music and the Theatre in Malta 1963-64’ MYB

1966: ‘Music and the Theatre in Malta 1964-65’,MYB.

1967: ‘Music and the Theatre in Malta 1965-66’,MYB,

1958: ‘Flowering of the Arts’, The ‘Times, (London,26.x).

1969: The Maltese Islands: general works, guides, visitors’ accounts; a handlist of works in the Melitensia and general collection of the Royal University of Malta Library.

1970: ‘Poets Flourish, but Dearth of Good Playwrights’, ll-Polz, 15-16, (Sett-Dic.); (also published in The Times Supplement London, in Malta G.C., 29.ix.197O).

1982: ‘Theatre in Malta 1980-81’ MYB.
‘The bibliographical control and acquisition of Maltese books, with special reference to literary works in the English language’, in Proceedings: Conference on the acquisition and bibliography of Commonwealth and Third World literatures in English. (Oct.).